Book review: Messiahs, Volume 1

★★★

This is the first of a three-volume series about messiahs: Christ, the Messiah of 2000 years ago; Reverend Moon, the appointed Messiah of this age; and the many messiahs around us. In fact, everyone is a messiah. The book is well-written and easy to read, apologetic in nature, but it didn’t seem convincing enough to me to expect Bible-readers to embrace the ideas within. Thus, a three-star rating.

Nseka is a member of the Unification Church, and writes from that perspective. He believes literally in the Bible story; in particular, the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of mankind. This theme—the restoration of mankind from the Fall—pervades this entire volume. Adam and his wife Eve sinned, and history up to this point has been a redemption from sin.

Here’s how it works: Jesus is the Messiah, capital M, but the mission of the Messiah is to bring harmony. To establish the Kingdom of Heaven. Given that this has not yet happened—indeed, Satan has only grown stronger than ever—we may conclude that Jesus didn’t entirely fulfill the role of Messiah. For one thing, both Adam and Even sinned, and Jesus could only absolve Adam’s portion of the original sin;  both a male and female messiah are required to cover them both. Jesus represents only the second Adam. Had Jesus married, thus anointing a wife to serve as the female Messiah, perhaps he could have completed the messianic requirements. He didn’t, so we need a Second Coming.

Luckily, Reverend Moon is married. His first marriage didn’t work, but thankfully he found another wife, so the two of them can finish the job begun by Jesus. Jesus himself passed the torch to Rev. Moon, who serves as the Second Coming of Jesus. Rev. and Mrs. Moon are the True Parents, establishing a family and lineage under God in the Second Advent. Salvation comes through the marriage ceremonies for which Rev. Moon has become famous. Through the Blessing of a Moon-endorsed wedding (he plays matchmaker, selecting the wife for each man), humanity is able to conceive children within the lineage of God—children born without original sin, like Jesus.

And there you have it. Today, the Unification Church and the newly-inaugurated Kingdom of Heaven has grown considerably, and the providence of restoration has reached a point where Rev. Moon no longer needs to match people. So great has the movement grown, that in 2010 he retired from that service and instructed candidates on how to pick their own spouses.

No one has outperformed Jesus save for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon (p. 163).